Fluxblog Weekly #86: Ab-Soul, J. Cole, Japanese Breakfast, The 1975
December 12th, 2016
Sermons With Curse Words
Ab-Soul “Threatening Nature”
Ab-Soul’s lyrics are about as densely crafted as they come, but his cadence and flow is loose and conversational, full of asides that deviate from meter without derailing the rhythm. “Threatening Nature” is too carefully written to feel improvised, but he does sound exceptionally casual as he picks at Christian theology, draws inspiration from Aleister Crowley’s philosophy of Thelema, and contrasts the oppression of black people with institutional sexism dating back to the dawn of time. It’s difficult to sum up exactly what he’s saying here – the point is that it’s all complicated and fucked up – but it’s fascinating to get inside this guy’s head and follow his connections. I’m particularly happy with how explicitly feminist this song gets, but I do wish it didn’t come immediately after he drops some homophobic language. It doesn’t wreck the song for me, but it does undermine its message, and fails to make the obvious connection that homophobia is rooted in misogyny.
Buy it from iTunes.
December 13th, 2016
Before I Disappear
J. Cole “Ville Mentality”
J. Cole’s massive popularity is a fascinating outlier. He’s not much of a celebrity, he doesn’t make a lot of guest appearances, he has no crossover hits, his style is low-key and very off-trend. He’s essentially very successful counter-programming, a current rapper whose music sounds always sounds like it’s from somewhere between 1997 and 2002 – i.e., what would amount to Classic Hip-Hop for people who would presently be in their late 20s to mid 30s. If you just want the Old Kanye, Cole is for you. If you miss conscious rap but feel like Kendrick is too pretentious, Cole is for you. If you can’t connect with Drake or Future, Cole is for you. If you barely even know YG and Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert, Cole is your dude. But then, Cole is for anyone who likes rap because Cole makes Default Rap music.
This sounds like I’m damning J. Cole with faint praise, but I think he’s a good rapper and a better producer. Cole’s productions tend to be subtle in their details and melancholy in tone, he’s almost entirely uninterested in bangers or anything you could conceivably dance to. He sticks to this very Nas-like lane, and it suits his voice – never convincingly aggressive or sexy, but highly introspective. “Ville Mentality” is a great example of how he and his collaborators – in this case, Elite and Ron Gilmore – frame Cole’s words with music that feels elegant and cinematic. The track signals Seriousness and Importance but backs away from outright pomposity or heavy-handed sentimentality. It comes out sounding quite tasteful, and emotional on its own terms.
Buy it from Amazon.
December 14th, 2016
Can I Get Your Number
Japanese Breakfast “Everybody Wants to Love You”
Everything in “Everybody Wants to Love You” sounds a bit hazy and sparkly at the same time, like camera footage that’s been treated to seem heightened and idealized in post-production. It’s the perfect sound for a song about a crush, and really pulls the listener into this overwhelming optimism and bliss. The lyrics build on that feeling perfectly by focusing on details and little fantasies. There’s a lot of lust in this song, but even more romanticism, and that thing of feeling so excited by possibilities that you can’t stop yourself from constructing perfect moments of sex and love in advance of anything actually happening.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
December 15th, 2016
A Decline In The Standards Of What We Accept
The 1975 “Love Me”
One of the negative effects of having made the 1980s survey set is that my tolerance for people saying that some recent music sounds like “the ‘80s” when it does not is very low. This is typically just a lazy way of saying “this sounds like upbeat pop music” or “this has a keyboard on it,” and is almost always something that is written and produced in a very contemporary way. The 1975’s “Love Me” is the rare song from the recent past that genuinely sounds like “the ‘80s” on a structural level – the music could easily pass for mid-‘80s INXS, and there’s a lot of Scritti Politti and Nile Rodgers in it too. But beyond that, Matthew Healy looks and sounds like the second coming of Michael Hutchence, and is the first major rock star in ages to really lean into being overtly sexual and self-objectifying. Healy’s performance in the video for “Love Me” is magnetic and highly entertaining – he’s overflowing with personality, and clearly gets off on preening around in this very cheeky way. There’s a bit of young Robert Smith in his hair and makeup, and a touch of Mick Jagger in his “I’m having a laugh, come party with me” vibe. What’s particularly wonderful about “Love Me” and The 1975 is that as much as it’s all connecting to excellent elements of older music that’s been more or less lost for a few generations, it all still sounds very of this moment. Their aesthetics and concerns are fresh, it’s just the template that’s familiar.
Buy it from Amazon.